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AMELANG 171:The Bible in Modern Hebrew Literature

The role of biblical myths in shaping Israeli identity and the development of a secular Hebrew literature. Readings include modern Hebrew poems and novels which offer new meanings to the stories of Genesis, Exodus, David, and the Song of Songs and make them relevant to the context of modern and postmodern Israeli culture. Readings in Hebrew and English. Prerequisite: intermediate Hebrew.

Last offered: Spring 2007
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

AMSTUD 12A:Introduction to English III: Introduction to African American Literature (AFRICAAM 43, ENGLISH 12A)

(Formerly
English 43/143). In his bold study,
What Was African American Literature?, Kenneth Warren defines African American literature as a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century response to the nation's Jim Crow segregated order. But in the aftermath of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement, can critics still speak, coherently, of "African American literature"? And how does this political conception of African American literary production compare with accounts grounded in black language and culture? Taking up Warren's intervention, this course will explore African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals and slave narratives to texts composed at the height of desegregation and decolonization struggles at mid-century and beyond.

AMSTUD 50N:The Literature of Inequality: Have and Have-Nots from the Gilded Age to the Occupy Era

Not since the turn of the last century have Americans experienced such a profound gap between those who have and those who do not, between wealthy and working poor, between defacto upper and lower classes, between those of the status quo and those who slip to the social periphery. We will be examining literary and artistic explorations of social and economic inequity, fiction and art that looks at reversals of fortune as well as the possibilities for social change. Readings include Jacob Riis¿
How the Other Half Lives, W.E.B. Du Bois¿
The Souls of Black Folk, Edith Wharton¿s
House of Mirth , James Agee & Walker Evans¿
Let Us Not Forget Famous Men , T.C. Boyle¿s
The Tortilla Curtain, Julie Otsuka¿s
When the Emperor Was Divine and Occupy Movement art.

Last offered: Spring 2013
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul

AMSTUD 51Q:Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (COMPLIT 51Q, CSRE 51Q)

We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"? Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take course for a Letter Grade.

This course encourages students to think critically about historical sources and to use creative and rigorous historical methods to recover African American women¿s experiences, which often have been placed on the periphery of American history and American life.

AMSTUD 68N:Mark Twain and American Culture (ENGLISH 68N)

Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain defined the rhythms of our prose and the contours of our moral map. He recognized our extravagant promise and stunning failures, our comic foibles and tragic flaws. He is viewed as the most American of American authors--and as one of the most universal. How does his work illuminate his society's (and our society's) responses to such issues as race, gender, technology, heredity vs. environment, religion, education, art, imperialism, animal welfare, and what it means to be "American"?

Movies and the fiction that inspires them; power dynamics behind production including historical events, artistic vision, politics, and racial stereotypes. What images of black and white does Hollywood produce to forge a national identity? How do films promote equality between the races? What is lost or gained in film adaptations of books? NOTE: Students must attend the first day; admission to the class will be determined based on an in class essay.

AMSTUD 105R:Religion and War in America (CSRE 105, HISTORY 254D, HISTORY 354D, RELIGST 105)

Scholars have devoted much attention to wars in American history, but have not agreed as to whether religion was a major cause or simply a cover for political, economic, and other motives. We will compare interpretations that leave religion out, with those that take it into account. We will also look at the impact of war on the religious lives of ordinary Americans. We will examine both secondary as well as primary sources, beginning with King Philip's War in the 17th century, and ending with the "War on Terror" in the present day.

Last offered: Spring 2017
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum

AMSTUD 114Q:Visions of the 1960s

Preference to sophomores. Introduction to the ideas, sensibility, and, to a lesser degree, the politics of the American 60s. Topics: the early 60s vision of a beloved community; varieties of racial, generational, and feminist dissent; the meaning of the counterculture; and current interpretive perspectives on the 60s. Film, music, and articles and books.

AMSTUD 114X:Reading Comics (FILMSTUD 114, FILMSTUD 314)

The modern medium of comics, a history that spans 150 years. The flexibility of the medium encountered through the genres of humorous and dramatic comic strips, superheroes, undergrounds, independents, journalism, and autobiography. Innovative creators including McCay, Kirby, Barry, Ware, and critical writings including McCloud, Eisner, Groenstee. Topics include text/image relations, panel-to-panel relations, the page, caricature, sequence, seriality, comics in the context of the fine arts, and relations to other media.